BUILDING TRADE

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21096, 22 February 1934, Page 14

BUILDING TRADE

OPTIMISM EXPRESSED AT CONFERENCE (PBESS ASSOCUTIO.N" TELESP.AU.> DUNEDIN, February 21. The twenty-fourth annual confer- I ence of the New Zealand Builders and 1 Contractors' Federation was opened here this morning, Mr J. W. Graham (Christchurch) presiding. After a welcome by the Mayor ((he Rev. E. T. Cox) Mr Graham, in Ms presidential address, struck a note of optimism, averring that the programme of expansion in the construction industry would prove the greatest stimulus to general employment. He thought that much of the relief work in the past resembled digging holes and filling them up again. The Unemployment Board could undertake more useful work by acting as a planning rather than an ad-' ministrative unit, preparing perhaps a 10 years' programme for the Government to embark upon. . While the No. 10 scheme, with its 40-hour week, meant employment for extra workers, it had curtailed the earnings and spending power of a large number of workers and, if the same conditions were to obtain after the emergency was over, they must in justice be accompanied by an increase in wages, which would mean increased costs. Looking ahead, he said the coming year promised to be a period of renewed building activity.